Kath attacks a ship inside the rear firing arc, but not with the primary weapon. Does she receive the extra die from her pilot ability?

I think she does. Comments?

Why would you want to do this? Hotshot blaster doesn't work at range 3, so you gain nothing over a normal attack at range 2-3 and in fact at range 1 you lose 1 attack die.

Indeed she does. Her ability says nothing about primary weapon only. So it will trigger from any kind of attack as long as the arc requirement is meet.

[edit - I'd have to agrea with Bilisknir though, it's a very poor use of the "Hot shot" blaster]

Although with the exception of the Hot Shot Blaster, the Firespray can't fire secondary weapons outside it's forward arc.

Looks right to me. Just like Tactician, even if you're selecting a target via turret that target is either in the arc or not, and the ability triggers as appropriate.

I can see a few unlikely corner cases where the Hotshot could produce a better shot. One would be if you had a Weapons Malfunction at R2 - the primary would be 2 instead of the 3 from the Hotshot. The other case could be one of those weird turret/arc combo situations, where a turret line would be at Range 2 but the in-arc line would be at Range 3. In that case the HotShot would roll 4vX, while the primaries would roll 3v(X+1).

I certainly wouldn't take a Hotshot on Kath to look for those specific situations, but if you're going to run one to cover the side blind spots, it would be a good thing to be aware of.

Reason I asked the question in the first place: Secondary weapons use only the front firing arc. The weapon attacks outside its firing arc. That's a shot outside the firing arc. It just happens to be inside another firing arc. That firing arc does not apply to the weapon that is shooting. But that firing arc does apply to the ship the weapon is shooting from.

If that shot is inside the rear firing arc, upgrades like outmaneuver (target -1 agility) or tactician (target receives stress) trigger just like the pilot ability? I think so.

Reason I asked the question in the first place: Secondary weapons use only the front firing arc. The weapon attacks outside its firing arc. That's a shot outside the firing arc. It just happens to be inside another firing arc. That firing arc does not apply to the weapon that is shooting. But that firing arc does apply to the ship the weapon is shooting from.

If that shot is inside the rear firing arc, upgrades like outmaneuver (target -1 agility) or tactician (target receives stress) trigger just like the pilot ability? I think so.

Kath's ability doesn't care if the weapon you are firing is in or out of its arc, it just cares if the shot you are taking is in your aux arc. Normally secondary weapons would not be able to fire outside of the front arc, but this one can, so it can benefit from the bonus.

Yes you would get the extra dice if you use it from behind, but as others have said, what would be the point? At range 1 it would be worse actually, 4 dice vs 5.

If the question is whether you would get the dice bonus by shooting it from the side, then the answer would be no.

It's still a good upgrade to have on a firespray because of the blindspots, but it would be pointless to shoot it from the rear arc.